Recession puts focus in US back on family values

Job losses, home foreclosures and financial worries have forced Americans to reassess their values, including the importance of family and the emphasis they put on work.

Many want a more balanced life with less stress and more time with loved ones.

"I broke my back for this company, missed my kids growing up, and for what? Nothing!" said a jobless man aged 48.

The disgruntled former manager was one of 1100 workers questioned in a Florida State University study on the effect of recession on their lives and priorities.

Nearly half said the worst financial downturn since the 1930s had increased their appreciation of family, and a similar number admitted the hard times helped them recognise the importance of people over things.

"The most telling part of this, and the one that offered the greatest level of variability in responses, what they felt most strongly about, was the issue of family," said Wayne Hochwarter, a professor of business studies at the university.

"That is an important component of life that is so easy to neglect because you have to make a living. And in a lot of families both mom and dad have to make a living."

Hochwarter described the financial downturn as a "wake-up call" for people who thought they were doing what was best for their families, but who now questioned the choices they made.

Nearly 40% of workers admitted their jobs were not as important to them now as they once were, and 23% realised they had put career ahead of family and free time. More than 70% of workers said most days at work seemed endless.

Hochwarter and his team, research associates Tyler Everett and Stuart Tapley, also found the impact of the recession was different on men and women.

While men thought their jobs were not giving them what they thought it would and left them feeling stressed and like they were going nowhere, women felt their jobs were taking them further and further away from their families.

"They could feel this distancing effect in other aspects of their life," Hochwarter said. "The end result may be the same, but perhaps the avenues are a bit different."

He hoped that this reassessment of their priorities would have a lasting effect and lead to more balanced lives. -